


what breaks you

by SaraJaye



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Betrayal, Crimson Flower Route, Crying, During the Timeskip (FE Three Houses), F/F, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Black Eagles Route Spoilers, Hugs, Self-Doubt, The Reason You Suck Speech, breaking speeches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:02:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29904270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraJaye/pseuds/SaraJaye
Summary: She thought she'd been prepared for anything when she chose this path. She was wrong, and it hurt like nothing else.
Relationships: Dorothea Arnault/Edelgard von Hresvelg
Kudos: 10
Collections: FE3H Kink Meme





	what breaks you

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt:** So, during the time skip, Edelgard is hard at work, fighting against the Church, running the army, trying to keep the empire and its people happy. Then, one day, having been run ragged by her duties, something causes her to just... break. Either Hubert or Dorothea finds Edelgard in her room, weeping as the pressure becomes too much. However you want to show the comfort is up to you.
> 
> \+ the breaking point is someone she was close to dying or betraying her.
> 
> \+ if Hubert, he's hesitant about the comfort but does everything he can to help. If Dorothea, she knows exactly what she's going through.

She'd been prepared for the worst going in. The day she revealed her secret in the Holy Tomb was the day she expected to say goodbye to her classmates and her professor and any Golden Deer or Blue Lions who'd joined their class midway through the year. The only thing she _hadn't_ been surprised by was Flayn leaving their ranks. She'd known exactly which Empire nobles would go against her and dealt with them accordingly.

Never would Edelgard have expected to be looking on in shock and horror as her trusted advisor returned from a "scouting mission" commanding a troop of Church soldiers. _There she is, the one who seeks to rob us of what we hold dear! In the name of the goddess and Lady Rhea, we must stop her!_

The Black Eagle Strike Force had managed to beat them back, but just barely. Ten soldiers lost their lives, several were badly injured, and enough of Elizabeth's force survived for her to claim a partial victory.

Elizabeth, the woman who'd taken her under her wing after the experiments left her siblings dead or too unstable to become the next Emperor. The woman who agreed that the nobles who'd ruined her father deserved to pay, spoke of her own distate for the Crest system that controlled Fodlan.

_"Why?"_

_"Because my eyes have finally been opened to the truth. You're not a visionary, you're a selfish girl who thinks she knows what's best for everyone and a weak child willing to latch onto whoever will listen to her rhetoric," Elizabeth said coldly. "But I shouldn't be surprised. The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree."_

_"Excuse me?" An icy pit formed in her stomach._

_"You heard me." Elizabeth tossed her braid over her shoulder. "Emperor Ionius was a weak, selfish man who thought his birthright as Emperor granted him the privilege to rule over all of Adrestia. You claim to want a reality where people rise and fall by their own merits, but you were born with the very Crest that grants you the privileges you look down on others for having." She smiled cruelly. "Lord Arundel and Duke Aegir had the right of it all along. Your father was a fool who deserved what he got, and so will you."_

After the experiments she'd promised herself she'd never cry again. _The girl who shed tears died long ago,_ she'd decided; she would not be a lost little girl who collapsed in grief over even the worst setbacks. Even when she'd watched the Immaculate One knock her professor off the cliff; even during those first painful days when she feared her dead she hadn't cried, instead throwing herself into keeping the Empire stable and warding off the Church.

She'd survived the loss of her siblings, coped with the disappearance of her mother after their time in the Kingdom, watched her professor thrown off a cliff, and _this_ was what broke her. Storming off to her room without looking at anyone, setting her crown on a desk with shaking hands, crumpling to her bed in a flood of tears.

_What if she's right? Half the people who stayed with me stayed because of the professor. I've tried so hard to keep the Black Eagle Strike Force running myself, but what if I'm truly nothing without her? Just a spoiled brat playing at revolutionary, with people only following me because they feel trapped?_

"Edie?" She froze, only just now remembering that in her blind devastation she'd forgotten to lock the door behind her. Or even close it. She wanted to tell Dorothea to just get out, go talk to someone who _wasn't_ a pathetic wreck, but her voice wouldn't cooperate. She heard the door click shut, felt the extra weight on her bed. "Edie, you didn't come down for dinner, everyone was worried about you."

The last time anyone had said that, she'd been six years old. She'd had a big fight with her sister Clara over something so stupid she couldn't even remember what it was, the servants had taken Clara's side, and Edelgard had run upstairs to their room to cry and throw Clara's things around. Father had come up to comfort her, and when Clara apologized later she'd chosen to believe he'd scolded her into realizing she was wrong.

She wasn't six years old anymore, and the only thing worse than crying like a lost little girl was anyone seeing her do it, especially people who were counting on her to lead them into a new age.

"Edie," Dorothea pressed, hand resting against her back. "It's not your fault they died, or that Sylvain and Lysithea got hurt. Their injuries aren't even that bad."

"Dorothea, please-" She curled tighter into her ball, stopping herself just short of a _leave me alone._ She'd seen what happened when Linhardt demanded this of people who interrupted his naps. "I-"

"Then it's her, isn't it." Not even a question, Dorothea and the others had been there to see Elizabeth tear into her and spit on her father's memory. "That _bitch_ who called herself an advisor and then led the Church right to our door." Edelgard relaxed a little.

"I feel so _foolish,_ " she muttered. "At least when we were all fooled by Tomas, he happened to wear a convincing disguise. Elizabeth had been with me for so long...I wouldn't call us best friends, but after I lost my older sister she was the closest thing I had."

"Hey, it's not _your_ fault she was a two-faced lying bitch this whole time," Dorothea said. "No one's blaming you for it, either, so you can put _that_ thought away." Edelgard groaned.

"Since when could you read my mind?"

"Edie, I've been with you for the past three years. Sure, there was the whole Flame Emperor thing, but when you get to know a person you get to know what they're thinking," Dorothea said gently, nudging her shoulder. "Come on, look at me."

"You shouldn't be _seeing_ me like this," Edelgard protested. An Emperor must be strong, unbroken, unflinching in the face of adversity. Dorothea was one of many she was responsible for the well-being and future of, people who chose to walk this path with her knowing the hardships it entailed. "It's humiliating enough knowing how much everyone must pity me right now. I'd almost rather they _did_ blame me for allowing a rat into our ranks."

Dorothea fell silent, and Edelgard hoped she would realize she was wasting her time and leave. The best thing to do would be for everyone to go about their business; Edelgard would get over her childish upset herself, like a strong leader should, and they'd never speak of this again.

Instead, she was pulled up and tight against Dorothea's chest, arms holding her firmly in place. She wanted to protest and struggle, but instead to her embarrassment she found herself burying her face in Dorothea's dress, sobs still wracking her.

"I can't say I know exactly how you feel," Dorothea murmured, stroking her hair. "In fact, it's always been the opposite of me. People who hated me showering me with praise and gifts once I became a star. So I won't claim that I can relate. But I will say that she's completely wrong about you."

"What if she's not?" Edelgard choked. "What if deep down I _am_ just a selfish hypocrite, preaching justice for the weak while myself possessing a Crest? Criticizing the Church for forcing their will on people while starting a _war_ to make them see things my way?"

" _No._ " Dorothea's embrace tightened, as did her voice. "You know very well you're not the only one who feels this way about the Church and the nobility. And everyone who stayed with you could have left any time they wanted, but they _didn't._ "

"But-"

"She's wrong, Edie. She knows she's wrong, she just wanted to make herself feel big and important when she's really just _stupid_ , letting the Church brainwash her like that," Dorothea went on. "I wish I'd killed her myself for saying all that about you."

Edelgard shook her head, sniffling, rubbing her nose on her sleeve.

"I feel so _pathetic._ I always swore I'd walk this path alone if I had to, that I didn't care what the world thought of me in the end...but here I am, second-guessing everything about the plan I've had for so long because of one woman."

"A woman you've been very close to for years. A woman who was on your side."

"Was she? I wonder, was it really the Church's doing?" Edelgard closed her eyes. "She claims they opened her eyes, but maybe she felt this way all along."

"Does it matter?" Dorothea smoothed her hair back. "Personally I don't care what her story is after what she did."

"I wish _I_ didn't." A part of Edelgard still wished there was some way to reason with Elizabeth, to bring her back, but she knew it was hopeless. She'd made her choice, whether she'd been swayed by the Church or simply lying to Edelgard all along. The cold, smirking woman she'd faced in battle wasn't the kind, pragmatic advisor who'd been like a sister to her for all those years.

"I know." Dorothea hugged her closer. "I hate her. I know she was important to you, but if she came back to us right now I wouldn't hesitate to end her life." Edelgard shivered. Dorothea was growing so weary of all the fighting, took no pleasure in killing, lamented the deaths of any Church soldiers they'd talked to or seen during their Academy days.

"You're one of the last people I'd expect to say that."

"She hurt you. Not just emotionally, she brought a pack of soldiers to attack you. She personally came at you with her sword drawn," Dorothea said. "It was the first time I ever saw you hesitate to fight back." Edelgard cringed, laughing bitterly.

"Pathetic, isn't it?"

"So what if it was? No one can be made of steel all the time, Edie," Dorothea said. "I mean, you'll have to deal with her eventually, but there's no rush. You don't even have to kill her, we can have her arrested and locked up. And let the local children walk by her cell and throw things at her for fun."

"Dorothea..." Edelgard couldn't help a tiny smile. "No, we'll need to cut her down next time. I need to get over this. No matter what she was to me back then, she's our enemy now. When we next meet her, I won't hesitate to end her." As much as she didn't want to think about it right now, the time _would_ come. "An Emperor must be ready for anything."

"But you're not just an Emperor. You're a person, and you don't have to keep everything bottled up," Dorothea countered. "I know you want to put on a brave face for all of us, and I won't stop you. But whenever you need to take it off and be upset or even cry...well, I'm here. That is, if you want me to be."

Edelgard slowly lifted her face, her tears more or less stopped, and smiled a bit more. She had her friends. People who had every reason to leave were still here. _This is the path I chose, and they chose to walk with me._

"I'd like that. Thank you, Dorothea."


End file.
